Turkey's Kurds see best hope yet of end to three-decade war

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, March 14 (Reuters) - Kurdish politicianAbdullah Demirbas is haunted by the nightmare vision of his twosons meeting in the hills of southeastern Turkey.

The first left home at 16 to join Kurdish rebels fightingthe Turkish army, and now his older brother is signing up on thegovernment side. Like many Kurds weary of a war that has killed40,000, he prays talks between fighters and government willbring the swift, lasting peace that has eluded generations.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), whose leader AbdullahOcalan is conducting talks from his prison cell on an islandnear Istanbul, is expected to declare a ceasefire next week. OnWednesday, the PKK freed a group of Turkish soldiers heldprisoner in their mountain retreat in northern Iraq.

Previous contact with the man once dubbed "baby killer" by Turkish media was a closely-guarded secret, but the latest talkshave been openly acknowledged by Ankara, risking the wrath of aconservative establishment.

There are perils for all and forces on both sides that standopposed to talks. In the regional centre Diyarbakir, a city ofanonymous apartment blocks ringed by centuries-old ramparts, the conflict eats into the heart of families and friendships.

"The worst thing that could happen in my life is for both ofmy children to come together fighting in one place," saidDemirbas, a member of the pro-Kurdish BDP opposition party. Hiswife, he said, would stay up all night to pray when she heardfighter jets leave on sorties to bomb rebel hideouts.

"Maybe my child is going to die tonight," he recounted hersaying of the younger brother, who left home four years ago tojoin the rebels in the highlands around the city perched on abend in the Tigris River.

The three-decade Kurdish conflict has opened Turkey toaccusations of human rights abuses and consigned the south-eastto poverty. It has lso forced a nation eager for a greater roleon the world stage to face up to its own ethnic diversity.

Progress in solving it has been painfully slow.

In this city of 1.5 million people, where boys selling teaand turnip juice dart among old men in traditional Kurdish baggytrousers, there is widespread resentment of a state which fordecades denied Kurdish ethnic identity.

But whether driven by his presidential ambition ahead ofelections next year, a path which would be smoothed by Kurdishsupport, or by fear of Kurdish assertiveness in neighbouringnorthern Iraq and war-torn Syria, Prime Minister Erdogan has anew sense of urgency.

Since October, intelligence officers and Kurdish politicianshave been speaking to PKK leader Ocalan in the island prisonwhere he was dispatched in 1999 after capture by Turkish specialforces in Kenya.

What has emerged appears the most comprehensive effort yetto end the conflict with the PKK, considered a terrorist groupby Washington and the European Union as well as Ankara.

"There have been many attempts at peace, but this one is themost serious," said Imam Tascier, head of the RevolutionaryDemocratic Cultural Associations (DDKD), one of several Kurdishleftist groups formed in the 1970s and a precursor to the PKK.

"Why? Because it is being carried out in the open. Previousefforts have disappeared without trace," he said. "But aceasefire alone will not solve the problem, this is only thebeginning."

The PKK originally demanded creation of an independentKurdish state in the southeast but has now moderated itsdeclared goal to autonomy within Turkey.

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM

Erdogan has taken steps his predecessors would never havedared, including allowing Kurdish television broadcasts andelective Kurdish language courses at state schools.

But his administration has also overseen the detention ofthousands of Kurdish politicians and activists in recent years,Demirbas among them, while last summer saw the heaviest fightingin more than a decade with PKK militants.

Leaks from the talks with Ocalan reveal a roadmap envisaginga PKK ceasefire from March 21, the Kurdish New Year, thewithdrawal of fighters to northern Iraq and eventual disarmamentin return for greater rights for Kurds.

"We are hopeful, with some reservations," said Demirbas,breaking off to be briefed on a convoy heading to northern Iraqto collect the Turkish soldiers being released from PKKcaptivity as a confidence-building measure.

"Concrete steps need to taken with urgency. We have no timeto lose. If this is not solved now with all the popular supportfor peace, things will only get worse."

He reeled off a list of demands for the country's 15 millionKurds, who make up roughly a fifth of the population: changes tothe constitutional definition of citizenship, mother-tongueeducation from primary school age, the strengthening of localgovernment and a lower threshold for political parties to berepresented in parliament.